mexico renews itself - ProMéxico

64 Negocios ProMéxico | The Lifestyle Negocios ProMéxico | The Lifestyle 65
Tianguis
Orgánico
Chapingo
(Chapingo Organic Market)
Vida Orgánica
To meet the needs of those looking for an environmentally-friendly
lifestyle, Vida Orgánica is just right. The company saw an opportunity
to extend its business range to include not only organic foods,
but a whole range of products designed to reduce the negative impact
that consumers’ everyday activities have on the environment.
Besides producing a wide range of products that bear the organic
seal, Vida Orgánica distributes clothing made from organic materials,
electricity-saving light bulbs, rechargeable batteries and
even personal grooming and beauty products that are carefully selected
based on their ingredients and treatment methods.
In terms of food, they gather products from small growers of infusions,
coffee, marmalades, cereals and supplies that have a high
quality standard and that guarantee that their organic value, free
of industrialized chemical processes, contributes to the quality of
life of both consumers and producers.
vidaorganica.com
As with any business, anyone who wants
to produce and distribute organic products
needs to have a space in which to sell them
and spread the word.
In Mexico, one of these spaces is the
Chapingo Organic Market, a project that
has been around for nearly a decade. It is
sponsored by the University of Chapingo
to both create a network of small producers
and offer a space to promote their products.
The Chapingo Organic Market is open
each Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Shoppers can find foods that are free of industrial
processing and daily use products
that are prepared with environmentallyfriendly
methods. Also, there are workshops
and cultural events for consumers to
increase their awareness of the economic
and health benefits of revisiting the traditional
method of obtaining food.
Igualdad S/N
Colonia El Cooperativo
Km 38.5 of the Mexico-Texcoco Highway
Estado de México
Coffee Movement
According to figures published by CNN Mexico, Chiapas is the
world’s largest producer of organic coffee. In this Mexican state,
approximately 70,000 producers –of which a third are women–
produce 18 million tons of organic coffee each year.
This means that in Chiapas, organic coffee production is an
economic movement. It is one of the best examples of how the
green economy functions, because the people who live and produce
in the state’s coffee areas have discovered that unity really
does produce strength. They have coalesced into an inclusive
and cooperative community to market their coffee, which is
free of agrochemicals and artificial fertilizers.
For all this, the demand for organic coffee grown in Chiapas
is increasing at an average rate of 5% each year.
In the heart of the cloud forest that crowns the Sierra Madre
de Chiapas is Santa Rita, a small town full of coffee plantations
founded by Turks and Germans in the early 20th century.
Today, Santa Rita is part of the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve.
Here, Rosalía Roblero and her family own three hectares that
have been producing quality coffee for over 100 years.
In 1990, El Triunfo was declared a protected area, which
means the coffee grown here is free of potentially polluting
agrochemicals and artificial fertilizers. And because coffee
plantations require shade, more native trees have been planted,
helping counter deforestation in the mountains of Chiapas.
The organic coffee produced by the Roblero family is among
the best in Mexico, but it is also exported by Agroindustrias
Unidas de México, which supplies Starbucks and other coffeehouse
chains with small doses of success in a cup.